Help - price comparison sites

c.phipps1

My current dual fuel plan will be coming to an end soon so I'm trying to find a new fixed deal to see me through next winter. I have gone on several comparison websites, entered the same information about by current usage and got different prices on different websites but from the same suppliers. I also went on Scottish Power's website, got a quote, went to apply and the price changed? Am I doing something wrong?

Wywth

c.phipps1 wrote: »

My current dual fuel plan will be coming to an end soon so I'm trying to find a new fixed deal to see me through next winter. I have gone on several comparison websites, entered the same information about by current usage and got different prices on different websites but from the same suppliers. I also went on Scottish Power's website, got a quote, went to apply and the price changed? Am I doing something wrong?

If you were getting different results, then yes you were doing something wrong

1. What annual usage in kWh did you enter?
2. What is your supply region (or first part of your postcode)?
3. Which comparison sites did you use?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

On some comparison websites, if you are on a fixed tariff they calculate a figure for the period your present tariff has left to run, and then assume you will switch to that company's standard tariff for the remaider of the year.

As an example, if your present tariff(let us call it Tariff A) finishes in 2 months time, the annual figure you will be given is 2 months at Tariff A and 10 months on the company's Standard tariff.

I suggest you don't enter any details of your present tariff i.e. leave it on the default setting, and just enter your annual kWh. It will then list the available tariffs in price order.

It is most important that you enter kWh and not how much you pay.

Scottish_Power

Hi c.phipps1 if you want any help with this or want us to check your quote please e-mail us at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] Thanks David

retiredin2011

I have found that about comparison sites as well.

Exact same kWh figures for gas and electricity and yet I get different suppliers recommended as the cheapest.

Also different costs as well.

Since I am on Eon's warm assist tariff, nobody can beat what I am paying just now anyway.

Wywth

retiredin2011 wrote: »

I have found that about comparison sites as well.

Exact same kWh figures for gas and electricity and yet I get different suppliers recommended as the cheapest.

Also different costs as well.

Since I am on Eon's warm assist tariff, nobody can beat what I am paying just now anyway.

I refer you to the response I gave in post#2

retiredin2011

I refer you to the response I gave in post#2

And I refer you to my post.

Exact same kWh figures for gas and electricity

Why are you so insistent that the comparison sites can't be wrong?

I was going to take screen shots and post them, then I thought, why bother, you would still say there was nothing wrong with the comparison sites.

Wywth

Sorted :cool:
I would urge others to do likewise.

GotToChange

I am reading this with interest as I am thinking of looking at comparison sites - BUT - as a self-confessed number-freak, it is simply not enough to know what an alternative supplier would charge me, I want the nitty-gritty - which, with so many tariffs - seems almost impossible to ascertain.

I looked at the Co-op Energy site and requested a quote. The first difficulty was having no history in this property, the annual usage was something of an extrapolated estimate (plus rifling through old bills, well as possible as it was to rifle through PDFs that I had fortunately saved to my computer, which is just as well as they would have vanished into the ether when I moved/changed to supplier at new property).

Even doing this, all I got back was an annual cost and an indication of the saving - which would only apply if I opted to switch that day! I wanted to know the unit and standing charge costs (call me a pedant, I'm not ashamed....) so did not feel well-enough informed to make the change - and it has also made me wary of the comparison sites.
(I have never needed to do this as I was happy - complacent possibly - with S/Power and my consumption levels and the amount I paid. Moving to a new house and inheriting a strange heating system and now-changed prepayment meters has prompted my research and now I am a bit like a dog with a bone.)


Also, they requested my current suppler and their tariff. It happens to be E.On (who I am new to) - and the drop down menu of their tariffs numbered about 30!!

I seem to recall there being talk of transparency from the energy suppliers. Well, it has yet to happen it would seem; the waters are muddier than ever.
:mad:

retiredin2011

Sorted :cool:
I would urge others to do likewise.

Typical, doesn't like the answer so goes in the huff

retiredin2011

I know WYWTH won't see this but for anyone else who doesn't believe he is god 2 price comparisons sites with 17500 for gas and 4500 for electricity.

http://i45.tinypic.com/aelfl3.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/33llg7d.jpg